Red Dragon & Magic Bud - First CFL grow using "Buds for Less" light set-up

The “Days” number is the number of days since the seeds were taken from their packet and planted, not the amount of time since germination or sprouting.

8th August 2010 (Day 0)

Barneys Farm Red Dragon seeds are not huge and plump seeds, they are relatively small but well formed, solid and healthy looking.




2 Barneys Farm Red Dragon seeds placed directly into 42mm Jiffy Peat Pellets sitting in 60mm dia black plastic pots.
Placed in plastic Tupperware container covered with cling film.
Placed under two 24w CFL’s (6500k) with two 24w CFL’s (2700k) adding side warmth to help germination.
Light on 24/0.

9th August 2010 (Day 1)

Container mildly warm, feels a good temp.
No sign of germination … as expected.

10th August 2010 (Day 2)

Removed cling film, found temp to be quite warm … maybe a little too warm, so removed the two 2700k CFL’s leaving just the two 6500k CFL’s.

Carefully scraped away the peat covering both seeds and found that both seeds had cracked and one had sent out its tap root.
Replaced the peat covering over the seeds and expect to see the seeds rise and break the surface tomorrow.

11th August 2010 (Day 3)

One seed had broken the surface and shed the seed covering; the other had just started sending out its root.

12th August 2010 (Day 4)

True leaves developed on sprouted seed but other seed still in same condition – tiny root shoot showing.

13th August 2010 (Day 5)

Not much difference from yesterday – still waiting on second seed, maybe it will be a single plant grow..

14th August 2010 (Day 6)

Not much difference from yesterday.
Received Magic Bud feminised seeds (Paradise Seeds) from Planetskunk and decided to plant one seed … it may be in addition to the slow sprouting Red Dragon or it may replace it.
The Magic Bud seeds are huge compared to the Red Dragon seeds.


At this stage I should outline my “plan”.
You always need a plan so you can organise and prepare … also so you can know when things don’t go according to the plan (as is usually the case).

I plan to grow two or three plants using CFL’s, depending on whether the slow seed gets going and whether the Magic Bud sprouts.
I plan to minimise any stress (no LST, no topping) and let the plants grow undisturbed.
Probably a week or 10 days into the flowering light cycle I hope to be able to remove a lower branch or two for clones.

The Red Dragon has an expected flowering period of 9 to 11 weeks (63 to 77 days) and the Magic Bud has a period of approximately 56 days.
I may have issues with the two varieties growing at different rates/different sizes but the initial grow is trial and error – future grows will be SCROG’d so light placement will be easier to manage.
Flowering periods may be extended due to the shortcomings of CFL lighting … then again maybe not.

Two clones (one of each variety) will be grown until large enough to remove the tops for clones (second clones), leaving the topped plant to grow as Mother plants to produce clones for a future SCROG.

The second clones will be grown until they have 4 or 5 new node sets and then switched to flowering. They will be treated repeatedly with colloidal silver to stimulate the production of male flowers.
The pollen will be used for self pollination and some pollen will be saved to be used on one of the next batch of clones.
I would like to compare the seeds from self pollinated females and the seeds from clones pollinated with the same pollen. As the plants will be genetically identical I see no reason why one seed should differ (chance of hermie) from the other.
I may eventually cross the Red Dragon with the Magic Bud (and the Magic Bud with the Red Dragon) but it will just be for curiosity as there is no way that I would get anything resembling a stable strain with a single cross, and I can’t be bothered with back crossing etc.

15th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 7 / Magic Bud Day 1)

I had enough waiting for the second Red Dragon seed to sprout so I dug it out of the Jiffy Pellet and had a close look.
It looked exactly the same as it did 4 days ago, and there is no way that it can just sit for 4 days with its root tip showing and grow no further.
Gentle squeezing of the seed resulted in a white mush between my fingers – it’s a hard life being a dragon’s egg, and that one didn’t make it.

The RD seedling has started to show the second set of true leaves and has sent the tap root through the bottom of the 42mm Jiffy Pellet and about a dozen root tips were pushing through the sides of the pellet. Leaving it longer to pot into my soil mix would only encourage root damage, so I potted the pellet into a 150mm dia pot tonight.

My soil mix consists of equal parts General Purpose Potting Mix, Commercial Organic Compost, Composted Pulverised Cow Manure, Home Grown Worm Castings and Expanded Polystyrene Beads. I don’t expect to be adding much in the way of fertiliser during the grow except a little something to boost the buds in the mid stage of flowering.

The little RD seedling looks quite lost and lonely in the middle of a six inch pot.

The Magic Bud seed is (as expected) still a seed.

16th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 8 / Magic Bud Day 2)

The RD seedling’s first true leaves are about 2cm long with the second set being around 0.5cm – certainly not worth the effort of taking a photo yet.
So I don’t overstress the seedling, the CFL’s are about 15cm (6 inch) away from the plant … let it get its roots established before closing the distance.

The MB (I’ll call it a seedling) is about to shed the seed casing and spread the cotyledons.

It seems that germinating and sprouting straight in Jiffy Pellets is definitely the way to do this – both the Red Dragon and the Magic Bud seeds only took 3 and 2 days respectively to crack, sprout and rise from the pellet to begin their life as a plant.

17th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 9 / Magic Bud Day 3)

The RD seedling is looking healthy and continuing to enlarge – leaves show no sign of droop and are a deep green colour.
The MB seedling has shed its seed casing but the cotyledons have not yet opened fully. It has already sent the tap root through the bottom of the Jiffy Pellet so I planted it into its 150mm dia pot to avoid any root damage later.

I’m currently running 6 x 24W CFL’s (6500K). Three are surrounding the RD and three are around the MB, the RD’s lights are closer to the plant than the MB’s … about 2.5 inches compared to 4 to 5 inches for the MB lights. As both plants develop more and when I am sure that they have a decent root mass I will move the lights really close.

18th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 10 / Magic Bud Day 4)

The RD seedling is showing the 3rd set of leaves developing – still green and healthy looking. Took first photograph.

I am not planning to photograph tiny seedlings every day of their life – as they are actually quite boring to look at unless they are your own plants J
Anyway – 10 days from being a dry seed in a breeders pack deserved a photo.

The MB seedling may be having problems as it seems to have only got one of the initial serrated leaves developing … I will wait and see what happens and may take a photo when it is big enough to see anything.

nice! subd

Looking forward to seeing this grow

wasnt seemorebuds a member on this forum? what happened to that guy, sub'd btw

yea he was...i actually gor the idea from the same book....but it never went as planned and i just put it aside after the 2nd week lol good to use for a reference!

mistaphuck said:

wasnt seemorebuds a member on this forum? what happened to that guy, sub'd btw

Click to expand...

His forum name is Garden Knowm .

Thanks to all that have subb'd, I'll be updating soon with another pikkie or two - not a lot happens in the early stages although my Magic Bud seedling is fighting (and winning) a battle to get established.

I have just ordered a Kessil LED light (Magenta) and will probably be modifying my set-up to accomodate this energy beam and use my CFL's for supplementary side lighting, but for the moment CFL's are the light source.

21st August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 13 / Magic Bud Day 7)

The RD seedling is looking perfect, great dark colour.

I received my el’cheapo 30x magnifier today and had a good look at the plant – really healthy covered in fine hairs and even the occasional trichome.

The munted MB seedling initially looks like something that you would toss out, but I always root for the under-dog.

It was born with what appeared to be one deformed initial serrated leaf … that is all.
Looking really closely I can see the growth point and I can see that the next set of leaves are going to be healthy and hopefully complete.
At Day 7 from dry seed the RD was much more advanced and I would say that the MD is at least 2 days behind , but hopefully will get a move-on when the next set of leaves start working.

22nd August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 14 / Magic Bud Day

The RD seedling is still looking perfect as you can see in the photo …

I plan to repost old photos with each new photo so that you can easily see the changes as time goes by.




The munted MB seedling will look better in a day or three, but here is an initial photo showing the healthy growing point next to the single deformed initial serrated leaf.



When I chose the seed to plant, I picked a seed that had a damaged outer casing … I think that it may have been attacked by some bug whilst still a seed.
As long as it is only physical damage it will recover into a normal plant, if it is fact a mutant then it will be interesting to see where it takes me.

growin pretty fast! ur right that 2nd tree is mutated! lol should make it through though...mines did

Sub'd

I fully expect your cfl grow to be better than mine lol

fictionalgrower said:

Sub'd

I fully expect your cfl grow to be better than mine lol

Click to expand...

Welcome aboard.
I don't see why my grow would be better than yours, you are actually using more watts than my light rig's maximum (based on the bulbs that I have). I can load up with 10 bulbs and all mine are 24w.

However, when I plug in the focussed LED light (Kessil H150 Magenta) I will have a 2 foot diameter grow zone with CFL's adding side lighting - then maybe my grow may get a bit better.

It will be good to compare grows.

24th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 16 / Magic Bud Day 10)

The RD is still happy and nothing remarkable needs mentioning.




The MB has definitely improved and apart from missing one of the first serrated leaves (and the other being damaged) it seems about at the same stage that the RD was at 10 days from dry seed.



I am amazed that trichomes are visible when you look at the new growth under 30x magnification … and the leaves are velvety covered in tiny hairs.

comin along nice!

27th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 19 / Magic Bud Day 13)

The RD is developing well, the bottom set of fingered leaves are developing brownish dots along the tips of the serrations but it can’t be nute burn as it hasn’t had any food yet.
The internodes are very tight and the bottom two sets have well developed shoots growing.
Just to give it a boost, I fed with low strength liquid fertilizer – it is starting to look like the Red Dragon may be a solo grow.

The MB is starting to bother me, the new growth (when looked at under 30x magnification) looks blotchy, almost as though something has nibbled the leaves.
The very new growth has black patches.
At normal viewing magnification there is nothing visible so I can’t take a photo – maybe tomorrow.
I feel that the MB is destined to be euthanized.

sorry to hear about your MB, hopefully you're wrong

It doesn't matter if it has to be trashed, hopefully one plant will give me more smoke than I can use, and I am only growing for personal use.

I haven't mentioned that I haven't had a smoke for over 5 years, I would say that my tolerance would be a little on the low side

One plant will allow me to iron out the bugs in my system while getting ready for the second grow that will be at least two strains SCROGGED.
I am aiming for two clones of two strains (4 plants) scrogged into a 2 foot diameter circle - this will fit my flowering space and nicely fit the footprint of my (soon to receive) Kessil H150 Magenta LED.

If I can grow and harvest 2 strains every 10 weeks or so, I will very quickly have a nice selection of bud.

As well as the Red Dragon and Magic Bud seeds, I am waiting for delivery of some Barneys Farm LSD and Pineapple Chunk together with some freebie seeds (Thai/Haze x Skunk). By the time I have grown those and possibly cross bred a few, I think I will be happy (or at least so stoned I can pretend I am happy).

sounds like an awesome plan, keep us posted. We like to watch lots of bud pron lol

29th August 2010 (Red Dragon Day 21 / Magic Bud Day of Death)

The RD is getting quite robust and is looking healthy except for the slight leaf problem mentioned on day 19.
As I have decided to use Riddleme’s “Make it Rain” technique I am not going to concern myself with whether the leaf damage is nutrient or pH related as both those issues will be regulated by “making it rain”.
Tonight I absolutely saturated the potting mix by constantly flushing with a 10 litre bucket full of pH 6.5 water followed by another 2.5 litres of water and “worm juice” again with a pH of 6.5.
The light cycle is 20 on / 4 off using 4 x 24W CFLs (6500K) which are no more than 2 inches away from the leaves, the flushing was done just before light’s out, I will take a photo when the lights are back on.

As this is going to be a solo plant grow, I will veg longer than I had planned and grow as a SCROG.
I will let the plant get a bit of height (may have to raise the lights) before topping to get 4 strong leaders which will be allowed to grow out a bit before being trained under my SCROG screen.
At the moment the internodes are very closely spaced with maybe 5 sets of nodes over 1 ½ inch of stem with at least 6 side branches already developing.
Hopefully the rain dance will encourage it to put on a bit of length – if not, then I will raise the lights.

The latest photos are the last 2 and you can see how short/stocky the Red Dragon is becoming. It is absolutely saturated from the first stage of the rain making, time to see how many days it takes to wick away the water.
I will be feeding with ¼ strength nutrients when dryish, I won’t be looking to find the optimum nutrient concentration until I switch to flowering.





As was hinted by the phrase “solo plant grow” – the Magic Bud was put out of its misery. The new growth was emerging already damaged with black/dead tips and if it was a viral or bacterial problem I am sure that my grow room is better off without it.

riddleme does not perform his making it rain technique on seedlings he waits for them to grow out of that stage b4 he starts...also the burn is from 2 things at that stage u dont need the light so close...i learnt this the hard way...and u shouldnt be feeding it any nutes yet either...found that out the hard way aswell...i corrected these two things and my grow took off everythings look great alot of fast growth!

Hi Rasta, thanks for your input - I kinda thought that it was the lights as the "damage" appeared before I gave it any food at all.

I have raised the lights a bit as I want to stretch out the top enough to remove the top and clone it - it already has good side shoots just waiting to become the 4 main stems, I just need more height - keeping the CFLs close really keeps the plant compact.

I read that Riddleme advises not to do the raindance while in the veg stage as you will end up with trees. I actually want the plant to really grow fast and furious in veg as it will be going under a scrog screen - you generally need to keep the plant in veg a bit longer than normal while the scrog screen gets filled.
By doing the rain dance early and topping the plant,I hope to be able to get 4 vigorous leaders so my screen gets covered a bit sooner.
If I wasn't going to be scrogging I wouldn't be raining on the plant this early ... and as Riddleme is famous for saying ... I love an experiment

nice well i hope u are on the verge of discovering that u can vege mopnster by making it rain early!...how do they respond to it?